e bungled over his words and at last came to a
pause under the steady stare of Adelaide's eyes.

"'Never mind, Elwood,' she said; 'I know what you would like to say. But
that's not what I am thinking of now. I am thinking of my brother, the
boy who will soon be left to find his way through life without even the
unwelcome restraint of my presence. I want him to remember this day. I
want him to remember me as I stand here before him with this glass in my
hand. You see wine in it, Arthur; but I see poison--poison--nothing else,
for one like you who cannot refuse a friend, cannot refuse your own
longing. Never from this day on shall another bottle be opened under my
roof. Carmel, you have grieved as well as I over what has passed for
pleasure in this house. Do as I do, and may Arthur see and remember.'

"Her fingers opened; the glass fell from her hand, and lay in broken
fragments beside her plate. Carmel followed suit, and, before I knew it,
my own fingers had opened, and my own glass lay in pieces on the
table-cloth beneath me. Only Ranelagh's hand remained steady. He did not
choose to please her, or he was planning his perfidy and had not caught
her words or understood her action. She held her breath, watching that
hand; and I can hear the gasp yet with which she saw him set his glass
down quietly on the board. That's the story of those three broken
glasses. If she had not died that night, I should be laughing at them
now; but she did die and I don't laugh! I curse--curse her recreant
lover, and sometimes myself! Do you want anything more of me? I'm eager
to be gone, if you don't."

The district attorney sought out and lifted a paper from the others lying
on the desk before him. It was the first movement he had made since
Cumberland began his tale.

"I'm sorry," said he, with a rapid examination of the paper in his hand,
"but I shall have to detain you a few minutes longer. What happened after
the dinner? Where did you go from the table?"

"I went to my room to smoke. I was upset and thirsty as a fish."

"Have you liquor in your room?"

"Sometimes."

"Did you have any that night?"

"Not a drop. I didn't dare. I wanted that champagne bottle, but
Adelaide had been too quick for me. It was thrown out--wasted--I do
believe, wasted."

"So you did not drink? You only smoked in your room?"

"Smoked one cigar. That was all. Then I went down town."

His tone had grown sulky, the emotion which had buoyed him up till